MARKET PULSE-Athenahealth, Tableau Software, Merck, Barclays

Reuters Staff

8 Min Read

(For more market insights, including options activity, click on ; for the Day Ahead newsletter link.reuters.com/mex49s; for the Morning News Call newsletter, link.reuters.com/nex49s) U.S. stock index futures were little changed on Tuesday. Dow Jones industrial average futures were down 0.01 percent at 16,443, S&P 500 futures were up 0.02 percent at 1,876.1 and Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.01 percent at 3,591.25.

** ATHENAHEALTH INC Monday close $126.78, -11.66 pct premarket

Hedge fund manager David Einhorn said on Monday that athenahealth is one of the companies in which his firm, Greenlight Capital, has taken a short position.

** TABLEAU SOFTWARE INC, Monday close $57.99, +8.47 pct premarket

The company reported a much smaller-than-expected quarterly loss as the data analysis software maker added 1,800 new customers.

** MERCK & CO INC, Monday close $58.63, +0.63 pct premarket

The drugmaker has agreed to sell its consumer care business to Germany’s Bayer AG for $14.2 billion, the companies said on Tuesday, adding to a string of major cross-border healthcare deals.

** PFIZER INC Monday close $29.96, +0.33 pct premarket

Representatives from the U.S. drugmaker and British pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca will be called before a British parliamentary committee to discuss a potential takeover deal in the coming weeks, a committee spokesman said.

Separately, AstraZeneca laid out its defence against Pfizer $106 billion takeover approach on Tuesday, painting a bullish picture of its new drug pipeline and forecasting sales above $45 billion by 2023.

** APPLE INC Monday close $600.96, +0.26 pct premarket

A U.S. jury on Monday left the total damages Samsung Electronics Co Ltd must pay Apple unchanged at $119.6 million, after additional deliberations in a trial where the South Korean smartphone maker was found to have infringed three Apple patents.

Separately, the company granted its new retail chief 113,334 restricted stock units, the company said in a regulatory filing on Monday, valued at $68.1 million based on Monday’s closing share price.

** FANNIE MAE, Monday close $4.1, + 3.4 pct after market

** FREDDIE MAC, Monday close $4.23

Activist investor William Ackman said on Monday he recommends the shares of the mortgage finance giants because the companies have low liquidity risk.

Ackman, speaking at the Sohn Investment Conference in New York, said the shares of the companies, both of which are now trading around $4 a share, could be worth $23. A better case would be for them to trade around $47 a share, he said.

** BARCLAYS PLC, Monday close $17.28, -2.78 pct premarket

The company said a collapse in investment bank revenue hit first quarter profits and was still hurting income in April as the British bank works on an overhaul of the flagging business, expected to be announced later this week.

** TARGET CORP, Monday close $59.87, -0.45 pct premarket

The company’s decision to oust Gregg Steinhafel as chairman and chief executive some five months after a massive data breach has triggered concerns the No. 3 U.S. retailer might have even more bad news for investors.

** CITIGROUP INC, Monday close $47.18, -0.13 pct premarket

The bank’s revenue from commodities transactions nearly doubled in the first quarter of 2014 year-over-year, making it the latest bank to benefit from this past winter’s soaring power and gas prices as the coldest weather in three decades gripped the United States.

** BOEING CO, Monday close $131.96

The company and its supporters on Monday vowed to fight for $2.1 billion in funding for 22 EA-18G electronic attack planes in fiscal 2015 to keep the plane’s St. Louis production line running past 2016 and preserve 60,000 jobs around the country.

** ACTIVISION BLIZZARD INC, Monday close $19.42

The company intends to spend $500 million developing and promoting “Destiny,” potentially breaking industry records as it seeks to build the sci-fi role-playing videogame into its next multibillion-dollar franchise.

** AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP INC, Monday close $52.72

The company posted a 27 percent fall in quarterly income, hurt by a drop in earnings from premiums and higher disaster losses in its core property and casualty insurance business.

** ALLERGAN INC, Monday close $169

Activist investor William Ackman, Allergan’s largest shareholder, has cautioned the company against pursuing any alternative deal that did not offer a better value than Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc’s $47 billion bid.

** COCA-COLA CO, Monday close $40.76

The company said on Monday it will remove a controversial flavoring stabilizer from some of its drinks, following rival PepsiCo Inc’s announcement earlier this year that it would drop the same ingredient from its drinks. The ingredient, brominated vegetable oil (BVO), is a chemical containing bromine, which is found in fire retardants.

** UBS AG, Monday close $20.84, +1.49 pct premarket

The company will revamp its corporate structure to ensure it can be broken up more easily in a crisis, cutting the amount of money it must set aside for potential losses and allowing it to pay shareholders a special dividend.

** INTEL CORP, Monday close $26.17

The company has hired senior Staples executive Steven Fund to oversee its global marketing, a novel pick that the chipmaker hopes will improve its profile in an industry where laptops have become blase compared to tablets and smartphones.

** GENERAL ELECTRIC Monday close $26.58, +0.08 pct premarket

The French government rejected the company’s current bid for Alstom’s energy assets on Monday, but opened the door for a deal that would also combine the two companies’ rail businesses.

** LEXMARK INTERNATIONAL, Monday close $42.29

The U.S. group said it made a 1.2 billion crown ($183.20 million) cash bid for Sweden’s Readsoft that was unanimously recommended by the software company’s board.

** ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES, Monday close $4.09

The chipmaker has expanded its licensing technology agreement with Britain’s ARM Holdings as the U.S. company seeks growth outside the slowing personal computer industry.

** METLIFE INC, Monday close $51.53

The China venture of the U.S. life insurer has become the first foreign-backed insurance firm to receive regulatory approval to set up a branch in Shanghai’s free trade zone.

** WESTERN REFINING INC, Monday close $43.53

The oil refiner reported a better-than-expected adjusted quarterly profit and said the second quarter was off to a “strong start”, with refining margins picking up.

** RENESOLA LTD, Monday close $2.75

The Chinese solar company said it would supply 1.6 megawatts (MW) of solar modules and 1 MW of mounting systems to a privately held energy and engineering company to power several residential and commercial rooftop projects in Jordan.

The company reported a big quarterly loss on Monday, compared with a year-earlier profit, as a previously announced $5.15 billion settlement related to Tronox Ltd litigation hurt results. (Compiled by Natalie Grover; Edited by Maju Samuel)